ROMANIA

Romania is a country in Southeastern Europe. It shares a border with Hungary and Serbia to the west, Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova to the northeast, and Bulgaria to the south. Romania has a stretch of sea coast along the Black Sea. It is located roughly in the lower basin of the Danube and almost all of the Danube Delta is located within its territory. The population of Romania numbers near 22 million people.

MISSIONARIES:

Gonciulea, Sever & Cathy

HISTORY:

The first known inhabitants of modern day Romania were the Dacians. In 106 AD, Romania left Dacian control under Roman Emperor Trajan. The area was abundant in mineral resources and was quickly colonized by the Romans, however, it was the first Roman province to be abandoned due to attack by the Goths. The Goths held it until the 4th century, when it was conquered by the Huns, which ruled until the 8th century.

The Bulgarians conquered Romania in the 8th century and incorporated it into the First Bulgarian Empire, where it remained until the 11th century. The territory changed hands many times throughout the next few hundred years and eventually became part of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1878, Romania was recognized as an independent state by the Treaty of Berlin, which began a period of prosperity until 1914. Romania fought in both World Wars, in WWI on the allies side, and in WWII beginning on the axis side and ending on the allies side. Romania fell under communist rule from 1947 to 1989. Recently, Romania has adopted a democratic system of government, has joined NATO, and has become a member of the European Union.

RELIGION:

Romania is a secular state, thus having no national religion. The dominant religious body is the Romanian Orthodox Church, an autocephalous church within the Eastern Orthodox communion; its members make up 86.7% of the population according to the 2002 census. Other important faiths include Roman Catholicism (4.7%), Protestantism (3.7%), Pentecostalism (1.5%) and the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church (0.9%). Romania also has a historically significant Muslim minority concentrated in Dobrogea, mostly of Turkish ethnicity and numbering 67,500 people. Based on the 2002 census data, there are also 6,179 Jews, 23,105 people who are of no religion and/or atheist, and 11,734 who refused to answer. On December 27, 2006, a new Law on Religion was approved under which religious denominations can only receive official registration if they have at least 20,000 members, or about 0.1 percent of Romania's total population.